Coresourcing is a selective collection of articles and posts that will help sourcers / recruiters keep abreast with new opinions, views and ideas within Candidate sourcing and recruitment.
Feel free to send across any articles or posts or suggestions at masoodsnet@gmail.com.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Anyway, Ushi is better so please join my network in Linkedin instead. The Ushi Linkedin import tool is here, and it is so easy to use. Just a friendly reminder so that you can keep on successful networking."

Interesting Article, would also give you an idea about Chinese Linkedin Clones. Also a perspective of how social media is shaping up in China.

I have tried Renren, but due to the language, found it impossible to use effectively. Ushi, has been a very comfortable to use network, and has a good mix of English and Chinese.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Read a post on Boolean Blackbelt “Passive recruiting doesn’t exist” and it has pierced my long founded assumption of Passive recruiting/sourcing as opposed to Active recruiting/sourcing. Let’s redefine the two terms
Active sourcing / recruiting : Reflects a conscious effort towards finding a candidatePassive sourcing / recruiting: Reflects a laid back approach towards finding a candidate.

Differentiators between the two breeds…

Active sourcers/recruiters

Passive sourcers/recruiters

Job post

Well made adverts designed to attract candidates. Responses reviewed and adverts refined accordingly. Will respond to all / most of the candidates. Spread the posting across job boards, universities, social communities and other sources

Post jobs and wait for responses. Candidates not responded to.

Rely on Print and Job board adverts.

Social Media

Active on social media with sizeable and quality networks. Publicise their company, jobs and themselves. Create / Participate in communities, where candidates are active.

Social media is for personal use

Job board search

Use alerts to keep a tab of which new candidates are posted in their domain. Extensively search job boards, for candidates and referrals.

A weeks search, max a month. Skim through the results.

Agency reliance

Carefully choose the requirements to be given to agencies. Mostly fill the requirements on their own.

Agencies are their best friends. Rely on agencies to fill most of the requirements.

Employee referrals

Push jobs to employees and impress upon them to refer.

Policy is published. Wait for employees to refer

Friend networks

Build friend networks within competitor companies, and keep a tab of what’s happening there

Not bothered about what’s happening with the competition

Mass emailing

Will send customized mailers

Make a draft, and send to all.

Telephone/internet sourcing

Utilise both, depending on the situation

Mostly internet focused. Telephone utilized only for interviewing.

Reason for contacting candidate

Events, birthdays, seminars, referrals, jobs… etc

Only for a job

Candidate network

Build a network of candidates, within their domains and geographies proactively.

Search for candidates when required. Don’t spend energy in building a network.

A Passive sourcer/recruiter will be an inbox recruiter as aptly described by Sarang Bramhe “A Recruiter 1.0 is one who gets a job requirement; post it to various job boards, newspapers etc and waits for his inbox to deliver goods. It’s a classical case of recruiter who “Post and Pray” to get good resumes and fill in the requirement”

An active sourcer/recruiter will work towards expanding his network by increasing his reach across multiple channels (colleges, SPOCS, associations, social networks, Phone sourcing... etc. And strengthen this network by being in touch on a regular basis. This sourcer may
even help the candidate with jobs with other companies, if required.

More than how they utilize the sources, it is the basic approach towards finding candidates and filling positions, that marks them out as passive or active sourcers. At the centre of this approach lies the willingness to keep candidates engaged and build an active network of candidates within the scope of requirements available.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Just read a post by Tony Garcia, "LinkedIn Admits That No One Goes to LinkedIn"...

Though the title is misleading, it does make you think... The abstract from the SEC site states ….

"The number of our registered members is higher than the number of actual members, and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members."

As any other social community, I am not surprised to read that. What will be interesting is to know the percentage of the majority. It is natural that most of the activity on any social network will be by the ones with a reason to utlise the network. Could be recruiters, sales or marketing guys, experts... majority of the people do not contribute.

This raises a question on your inmail responses. I generally look at 15 to 20% as a decent hit ratio.

Wondering if LinkedIn can put an activity meter against each member? Moreover, if that activity meter could classify the activity across categories... you will have less inmails... more returns.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Guess, you already know about them, recruiters weigh them in gold, hiring managers love them, they are difficult to find and they don’t change jobs easily… this is how generally “Passive candidates will be described. Love to be one
Lets try and unravel some myths about approaching these speciesMyth 1:Don’t Sell the Job - They are picky, they are sensitive! You may end up offending them by selling the job
The more passive the candidate, the more selling is required. Bland Job adverts or unenthusiastic pitch is never going to land you a passive candidate. If you just brag about the job and its benefit, the likelihood of you convincing the candidate is quite low. The key to selling a job to a passive candidate is to find out one reason, for which he will change the job. Myth 2:Passive Candidates are not looking out – They are happy with their current job and are not looking for a change.
Just check how any on Linkedin, don’t check “interested in job opportunities”. They are always looking out
There is never a perfect situation. Some irritant in the job will always be there. They may not be interested in moving out for a reason. Find the reason and irritant. You might find the irritant is more important than the reason not to move for some.Myth 3: Your Call is going to irritate most Passive candidates
Being wanted is flattering!! Yes, they may not be expecting your call and may be taken aback, they may be busy and you may have intruded at the wrong time. If approached professionally, no passive candidate will get irritated. Give them time to get comfortable and don’t forget to follow up.Myth 4:A “NO is the end of the conversation
The likelihood of the passive candidate saying not interested is higher than the active candidate. I have seen a lot of times, this NO is just a natural response to not being prepared for the call. Always try and understand why they are not interested to change a job. Make them comfortable enough so that they speak atleast 5 sentences. After that you wont have a problem. The first five are the most difficult. Control the conversation and the “No” is easy to encounter.Myth 5:Calling Passive candidates is not ethical
That’s an internal battle for you to fight. If you don’t feel happy in what you are doing it won’t be good enough. I don’t see anything wrong in offering a change for the better to a candidate. Even if it means, opening the eyes of the candidate.Myth 6:Always Email First : Don’t want to make an unsolicited call
Safe bet!! Email first, candidate is aware that you are calling, or at least you can say, “I had informed”. The only challenge with this approach is in deciding what information to reveal in the email. I would not want to give a solution, without understanding what’s bothering the candidate but still believe that a well worded email or voicemail wont hurt.Myth 7:Always Be Honest with the Passive candidate
Won’t dare to say this in public but I am a Sagittarian. Never give a false picture to the candidate about the role and related information. You don’t always have to be honest about is how you found his contact information. Don’t say anything that will make them suspicious.Myth 8:Passive Candidate will perform better than active candidate
Well, they will be more valued for sure by the recruiters, but can’t say if they will perform better. Assuming that passive candidates are currently performing better than their colleagues, leading to high satisfaction and hence not looking out, it is but logical to assume that they will perform well in the new company. Run a sample.. hire the best performers in your competition, and you will find they may struggle in your company. Apart from skill, it is the company’s culture, policies, procedure, environment, that will determine successful performance. Myth 9: Job boards don’t have Passive candidates
Hidden in CV’s are references, which could be excellent passive candidates, and also a contact for a ruse to connect. Apart from the references, I personally believe, all candidates who have not update their CV, for more than 3 months have turned passive. Had they been serious, they would have got a job by now.Myth 10:Passive candidate search is only effective in hiring senior level requirements
For senior level requirements, you don’t have an option on the job boards. Passive is by and large the only source for fulfilling these requirements. For other requirements, job boards, would generally give a decent response. That doesn’t mean, you can’t look beyond them to find more candidates. Definitely try the job boards’ first, easy thing to do. Don’t compromise on the quality of candidate, if you don’t find your best match. Remember, Passive is always an option, albeit a challenging one.

About Me

Masoodali Sayed is currently leading Operations for TalentPundits where he is a co-founder. At Talent Pundits he has built a unique bouquet of solutions combining Telephone Sourcing, Web Sourcing and Candidate engagement. A Sourcing expert, he has attained Level II CPSP (Certified People Sourcing Professional) Certification. In his previous role he was leading
the India Service Management Centre of Futurestep and also managed its largest IT Account.. Prior to this he was managing the APAC and Europe
sourcing for Cap Gemini. He has had the opportunity of working as part of one
of the first entrants in the Offshore Recruitment Process outsourcing space and
has comprehensive knowledge about the Global Recruitment Engagement Models and
Processes. Within this period he has been responsible for blueprinting and
mapping future trends within Recruitment Technology, Process Integration, Best
Practices and Client Operations. Along with recruitment, he has also managed
Market Research processes including Telephone and Web Research.

He holds a Master degree in
Industrial Psychology and Post graduate diploma in Human resources from Symbiosis
Institute of Management Sciences.

His expertise lies in Global
Sourcing, recruitment technology, deep web research, training and process
re-engineering and has played a key role in establishing BOT model.
He holds a Master degree in Industrial Psychology and Post graduate diploma in
Human resources from Symbiosis Institute of Management Sciences (SIMS) also
finished internal quality programs for ISO 9001 and ISMS 27001.